Thursday, March 26th – 6:00pm

Is a Values-Based Foreign Policy Possible in the 21st Century?

Former Ambassador Lewis Lukens

 

Ambassador Lewis Lukens assumed his duties as Diplomat in Residence in September 2014. Most recently he served as US Ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, managing bilateral relations with both West African nations. As the son of a diplomat, Lukens once lived in Senegal as a child. Following his father, Lukens, as a child, also lived in Morocco, Kenya and Denmark. Lukens graduated from St. Paul Catholic School in Princeton, New Jersey in 1982 and earned his bachelor’s degree in history in 1986 from Princeton University. He returned to Princeton in 2002 and earned a masters in public policy.

After joining the Foreign Service in 1989, Lukens’ first two tours were in Guangzhou, China, (1990) and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (1992). He later served management officer in Sydney, Australia (1995), management counselor in Dublin, Ireland (2003) and as executive secretary in Baghdad, Iraq (2004). Prior to that posting, from 2008-2011, he was Executive Director of the State Department’s Executive Secretariat. In that capacity he led a team that provided all logistical and travel support to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior-level State Department officials. Lewis traveled over half a million miles with Secretary Clinton, to almost one hundred countries. From 2005 to 2008 he was Consul General in Vancouver, British Columbia, leading an interagency team that handled US relations with western Canada.

Lukens has served in a variety of positions in the State Department and the White House. He was senior director for administration at the National Security Council during and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, served in the State Department’s Executive Secretariat, and worked as special assistant to the director general of the Foreign Service. He was U.S. Consul General in Vancouver, Canada, from 2005-2008. In this capacity, he oversaw the work of eight government agencies and managed a range of trade, border, national security, and public diplomacy issues. Prior to becoming ambassador, Lukens returned to the State Department’s Executive Secretariat, this time as executive director managing the office that provides travel, information technology, human resource, budget, security, and contracting support to the secretary of state and other State Department leaders.